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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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Sliel£SA<;o_n . 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



"LIFE" SERIES. 

Lowell rimes.— Judged solely from a mechanical standpoint 
the books are very beautiful, and excellently adapted for sim- 
ple gifts. Their value, however, is in their contents, and they 
fittingly belong to a " Life " series, for the reader who can 
assimilate their contents has obtained the true secret of life 
and of "death." These little books contain the quintessence 
of Christianity, a religion of self-development, of helpfulness, 
of unselfishness and of great-hearted manliness. 

Baltimore American.— There is a tranquil, strengthening, 
uplifting power in these little books that makes one cherish 
for them, when they have been enjoyed and laid aside, the 
warm, grateful sentiment with which we treasure dear 
friends. 



"LIFE" SERIES. 

Clothf bevelled, neatly stamped, red edges, each 60 cents. 

Fine edition, cloth, bevelled, elaborate stamping, heavy antique 
paper, full gilt edges, each $1.00, 



*«As Natural as Life." 

studies of the Inner Kingdom. By Charles G. Ames, 
Minister of the Church of the Disciples, Boston, pp. 109. 

Contents: 1. '*As Natural as Life"; 2. Self -Preservation ; 
3. Heart- Ache and Heart's-Ease ; 4. Numbering Our Days. 

In Love with Love. 

Four Life-Studies. By James H. West, Author of " The 
Complete Life," " Uplifts of Heart and Will," etc. pp. 109. 
Contents: 1. Transfigurations; 2. Serenity; 3. True Great- 
ness ; 4. Our Other Selves. 

A Child of Nature. 

studies of the Outward as Related to the Inward Life. By 
Mabion D. Shutter, D.D., Author of " Wit and Humor of 
the' Bible," "Justice and Mercy," etc. pp. 111. 

Contents: 1. A Wayside Prophet; 2. The Joy in Harvest; 
3. Monuments of the Leaves ; 4. The Mission of the Snowflake ; 
5. Down to the Lake. 



pothers, by different writers, in preparation.} 



*** For sale by booksellers, or sent, postpaid, on receipt of 
price by 

JAMES H. WEST, Publisher, 

174 High Street, Boston, 




A Child of Nature 



STUDIES OF THE OUTWARD 
AS RELATED TO THE INWARD LIFE 



^v 



MAKION D. SHUTTER, D.D., 

Author of "Wit and Humor of the Bible," j^'Justige and 
Mercy," etc., etc. ^.''^\,^'' '^^' ■■• , 




^^In Nature's infinite hook of secrecy / V' ^/ 
A little I can read^ 

— Shakspere. 



( 



BOSTON 

James H. West, 174 High Street 

1895 



v^ 



--'■^ 



^t^<.^ 



Copyright, 1895, 
By JAMES H. WEST. 



TO 

ARNOLD WILKIXSOX SHUTTER 

THIS LITTLE BOOK IS DEDICATED BY 

HIS LOVIXG FATHER. 



I am but a part of Thee — 
Like the land, and like the sea — 
Like the burning light of day — 
Like the broad and starry way. 

Good for all is good for me — 

I am but a part of Thee. 

As Thou mad'st me, I shall grow ; 

As Thou teachest, I shall know ; 

As Thou givest, I shall keep ; 

As Thou chastenest, I shall weep. 
Guider of the Ocean's flow. 
As Thou mad'st me, I shall grow. 

I the part, and Thou the Whole — 

Shall I tremble for my soul ? 

Fear to meet, in realms unknown, 

God the lover of His own ? 
We but seek the same great goal — 
I the part, and Thou the Whole. 

Child I am, yet do not fear 
Coming day or coming year ; 
Each brings closer union still 
With the universal Will. 
Each to each and All draw near — 
Child I am, yet do not fear. 

— Edmund I^oble, 
(4) 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

A Wayside Prophet, 9 

The Joy ii^ Harvest, 29 

Monuments of the Leaves, 49 

The Mission of the Snow-flake, 69 

Down to the Lake, . 91 



A WAYSIDE PROPHET. 



But if God so clothe the grass of the field, which 
to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall 
he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith ? 

— Jesus, 

Crimson clover I discover 

By the garden gate, 
And the bees around her hover, 
But the robins wait. 
Sing, robins, sing, 

Sing a roundelay ; — 
'Tis the latest flower of Spring, 
Coming with the May. 

Crimson clover I discover 

In the open field ; 
Mellow sunlight brooding over, 
All her warmth revealed. 
Sing, robins, sing, 

'Tis no longer May, — 
Fuller bloom doth Summer bring, 
Ripened through delay. 

— Bora Bead Goodale, 

(8) 



A WAYSIDE PROPHET. 



Maxy of his most important and impressive 
lessons Jesus drew from the world around 
him, — from the grass of the field, the lily of 
the valley, the mustard-bush, the fig-tree, the 
vine putting forth its tender leaves in the 
Springtime and proudly bearing its purple 
clusters in Autumn. He was in profound 
sympathy with nature. To him every plant 
and blossom was a revelation of the Father, — 
a manifestation of the divine beauty and 
care. He bade men look at the exquisite 
shapes and infinite variety of color in flowers, 
and learn the eternal truth that so long as a 
lily wore her robes of white, or morning 
dew-drops glittered on the rose, or a bruised 
reed shook unbroken in the wind, so long 



10 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

the whole world was folded in the everlasting 
arms. 

'* Wondrous truths, and manifold as wondrous, 
God hath written in the stars above ; 
But not less in the bright flowerets under us 
Stands the revelation of his love." 

This is the way I found my wayside prophet. 
I was going to see a sick person, — and wishing, 
I am very much afraid, that people would not 
get so sick as to require a minister when the 
thermometer was aspiring to a hundred, — when 
I saw a stalk of red-clover lifting its bright 
face so cheerfully by the sidewalk that I 
stopped to look. It never seemed to think 
of the raging heat, except as it tried to shield 
the hot sand in which it grew. And that 
work — casting its little shade — it was doing 
so bravely, and was looking so bright and 
happy over it, that it gave my grumbling and 
reluctant service a gentle but very grave rebuke. 

'* Your voiceless lips, O flowers, are living preachers, 
^ach cup a pulpit, and each bell a book." 



A WAYSIDE PROPHET>. 11 

The longer I stopped, the more I became 
interested in this wayside prophet. Did not 
God clothe with its green mantle, with its 
triple leaves, this stalk of red-clover here in 
Minneapolis, as he clothed the grass of the 
field upon which our Elder Brother looked in 
Judea? Is not this plant in the divine 
line of succession, — one of God^s appointed 
teachers ? Was it not his light that shone 
in its glorious face ? Was it not his voice 
that whispered, ^^Do your own duty as 
faithfully and gladly as does the little 
flower which makes bright this barren spot, 
and carry into the sick-room as gracious a 
smile as that with which the clover-blossom 
greeted you '' ? 

I took my dismissal, for the moment. But 
on my return I stopped again. One lesson I 
had already learned; and now I came once 
more to the feet of my floral philosopher. 
But where it grew there was too much sun 
and dust and rattle of street-cars, so I brought 



12 . A CHILD OF NATURE. 

the philosopher home in my button-hole, and 
continued our conversation in the study. 

" Now," I said, " if I had received help from 
one of my own kind, I should be interested 
in finding out something about him. The 
helper must not only bear the gratitude, but 
must be troubled by the curiosity of the one 
to whom he ministers. And, although you 
are a flower, you shall not escape. You have 
given me a lesson, — now give me your history." 

And the clover-blossom, refreshed after its 
long journey in my button-hole by the glass 
of water in which I placed it on my study- 
table, — as if it had been awaiting the 
opportunity to speak to me, — began : 

'' In olden times, when people believed that 
the earth was full of witches and sprites and 
goblins and demons, they used to wear me for 
a charm. Sometimes, you know, I have four 
leaves. Why ! did you never look for four- 
leaved clovers when you were a boy? 1^11 
warrant you did. And when you found one, 



A WAYSIDE PROPHET. 13 

did you not think you were lucky ? And did 
not the other boys envy you and try to get 
it away from you? And did you not hold 
on to it, and go and hide it in the big family 
Bible, where you were sure that no one would 
find it ? You need not smile, because you 
know you never looked into that ponderous 
book yourself, unless you wanted to see the 
big wood-cuts that showed how David chopped 
off the giant's head, or how King Solomon was 
going to divide a little child in two ! 

"But I was going to say that people used 
to fancy that a four-leaved clover was in 
the shape of a cross, and that it had special 
virtue for that reason. They thought that 
anything that looked like a cross must work 
wonders. 

" And not only was I made use of to drive 
out evil spirits, but to secure all sorts of 
advantages and blessings. I have sometimes 
been carried in the pockets of those who 
wished to be successful at play. Sometimes I 



i4 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

have been slipped under a lover's pillow, to 
conjure up in visions of the night the form 
of his beloved. Sometimes a maiden has put 
me into the shoe of her betrothed when he 
was setting out on a journey, thinking that 
I would secure his safe return! 

^^This may seem strange to you; but do 
you know that many people use the cross 
to-day as a sort of charm or amulet ? They 
worship it, because they think that it will 
bring them some profit in this world and keep 
off the evils of the next. They have great 
respect for the cross, because they hope it will 
prove magical enough to secure them from 
the penalty of their sins, and take them safely 
to heaven without much effort upon their 
part. They never learn the lesson of self- 
sacrifice and love the cross symbolizes. They 
never feel that the cross must be erected 
in their own hearts, and that all their sins 
must be nailed to it! Yet this is its only 
virtue ! " 



A WAYSIDE PROPHET. 15 

I feared that my prophet was getting rather 
warm; I therefore changed the water in the 
glass, for cooler. 

In a moment, with a pleasant smile, the 
clover-blossom continued : 

"After all, there was something sweet in 
that old superstition — the idea of using flowers 
to drive out demons : matching the clover 
against the cloven hoof. It is wiser to fight 
the devil with flowers than with fire. ^ Bless 
those that curse you. Do good to those that 
hate you, and pray for those that spitefully 
use you and persecute you.' ^Overcome evil 
with good.' Good is the weapon with which 
to fight evil. Error is never cured by other 
error, but by truth. When you wish to drive 
out a wrong and horrible idea, you must do it 
with a beautiful idea. Overcome injustice with 
justice, hatred with love, sin with holiness, 
darkness with sunshine, thorns with flowers. 

"Give youHg people to know that a bad 
habit is never conquered till it is conquered 



16 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

by a good habit — that a vice is mastered only 
by a virtue. Give the churches to know that 
the world will never be saved so long as they 
simply denounce sin; they must proclaim the 
glory and sublimity of righteousness — and 
furnish the world with specimens." 

Here my little teacher paused. But this 
was not all it had to tell. In a moment or 
two its story went on : 

"I have been used not only in the interest 
of superstition, but also of chivalry. At the 
festivals of the ancient Greeks, favored ones 
were crowned with wreaths of clover. In later 
days, I was worn as a badge of honor, — as 
a token of the divine presence, — upon the 
falchion arm of many a good knight. There 
was a ballad made about me, of which I 
remember these words: 

*'*Woe, woe to the wight who meets the green 
knight — 
Except on his falchion arm 
Spell-proof he bear, like the brave St. Clair, 
The holy Trefoil's charm.' 



A WAYSIDE PROPHET. 17 

"You see, it was my mission to inspire the 
hearts of brave warriors with courage. In the 
day when they supposed that my three leaves 
symbolized the Trinity, I made them feel that 
God was with them. They may have been 
mistaken about the Trinity, — I suspect yoxi 
would say they were, — but I do not doubt 
that God, whether three or one, was indeed 
with them. It does not matter so much — so 
very much — whether men get the right figure 
or not ; the - divine presence does not depend 
upon a sum in theological arithmetic. If 
only those people whose ideas about God are 
all exactly right could call him Father, what a 
vast orphan-asylum this world would be ! I 
know there are very learned, very good men 
who would not agree with me, and who would 
say that you really must work out this sum 
straight and show that three times one are 
only one after all, or else you never can be 
^ saved'; who would require your examination- 
papers to be absolutely correct in this 



18 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

problem. ... I may be wrong when I say 
^They are greatly mistaken'; — but that's the 
way a clover-blossom looks at it." 

Here my wayside prophet again paused ; and, 
while I waited to see whether it would continue, 
the suggestion it had made of God's presence 
recalled to my mind the story of Mungo Park, 
the great African explorer, who became lost 
in a desert, and at last in utter despair was 
about to lie down to die. But his eye caught 
sight of a tiny plant, revealing great beauty 
and perfection of parts. He reasoned that 
God, who took care of such a little perishable 
plant, would not desert him ; and with reviving 
courage he renewed his journey in safety. 

I turned to my clover-blossom, which seemed 
ready to continue: 

^* Long ago my connection with knights and 
warriors ended, but I have never ceased to 
preach my gospel of God and courage. I used 
to watch the faces of those who trod the walks 
by which you found me. I saw many that 



A WAYSIDE PROPHET. 19 

looked sad and weary. I gazed into eyes that 
were red with, weeping. I could tell that many 
of the passers-by were having a hard time in 
life, and I used to say to them: ^If God so 
clothe the grass of the field — if he take such 
good care of a stalk of red-clover here near 
the dusty road, sending the rain to wash my 
leaves when the dust is too thick upon them, 
sending the sunshine to dry them again, — will 
he not much more care for you? you who 
are of more value than an acre of clover- 
blossoms?^ And then I would sing them 
this song: 

'' * Never go gloomily, man with a mind ! 
Hope is a better companion than fear ; 
Providence, ever benignant and kind, 
Gives v^ith a smile what yon take with a tear ; 

All will be right. 

Look to the light, — 
Morning is ever the daughter of night ; 
All that was black will be sometime all bright ; 
Cheerily, cheerily then ! cheer up ! 

*' ' Many a foe is a friend in disguise. 
Many a sorrow a blessing most true, 



20 A CHILD OF KATURE. 

Helping the heart to be happy and wise 
With love ever precious and joys ever new. 

Stand in the van ! 

Strive like a man I 
This is the bravest and cleverest plan, 
Trusting in God, while you do what you can ; 
Cheerily, cheerily then I cheer up ! ' " 

Here suddenly changing its tone, my prophet 
said : 

"Now, I have told you something of my 
history — how I was looked upon and what 
my mission was. Let me ask you a question : 
Do you know what I stand for to-day? Do 
you know anything about the language of 
flowers ? ^' 

I replied that I knew a little — a very 
little — about that yocabulary: not enough, I 
feared, to satisfy one who spoke the language. 

"Very well, then, let me tell you that in 
the language of flowers the red clover stands 
for industry." 

(My flower was becoming practical.) 

" Yes, I try to lead a life of usefulness, and, 



A WAYSIDE PKOPHET. 21 

in so doing, I teach others that it is ^ more 
blessed to give than to receive' — whether 
time, money, labor, or life itself. 

" You have seen me under other circumstances 
than those of to-day. You have seen me, not 
standing solitary by the roadside, but growing 
with countless thousands of my kind in the 
country fields. 

"I wonder, when you came upon me to-day, 
whether I did not stir some memory of the 
past. Did I not carry you back to child- 
hood, when a field of blooming clover was a 
perpetual delight? Did you not see again 
the paths in which you used to wander ? Did 
I not conjure before you faces long vanished, 
and bring back the ' tender grace of a day that 
is dead'? 

"Well, you remember how, as you roamed 
the fields, the bees came to me and I gave 
them honey for their hives. Indeed, we used 
to be called ^ honeystalks.' Even Shakspere 
has mentioned us: 



22 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

" * I will enchant old Andronicus 

With words more sweet and yet more dangerous 
Than baits to fish or honeystalks to sheep.' 

" You remember how the cattle grazed upon 
me, so that my fragrance was in the milk. 
When a storm was coming we always gave the 
farmer notice of it by folding our leaves, and 
so were called the ^husbandman's barometer.' 
You know, too, how the mowers came and 
felled our proud heads; but only that we 
might furnish food for the herds in winter. 
And sometimes we were left standing, that we 
might be ploughed under to fertilize the 
ground for future crops — thus giving our' 
very life that something else might thrive 
and prosper. 

" Thus, when you consider all that I do for 
bee and beast and man, you will not wonder 
that my message is industry, and that I feel 
entitled to proclaim it to the world. As you 
look upon me to-day, remember what I do. 
Fill up your own life with deeds of good. 



A WAYSIDE PROPHET. 23 

Teach, others that a life of usefulness is a life 
of honor. Selfishness degrades and dwarfs. 
Who lives for himself alone is serving a fool. 
" I sang you a song of trust a moment ago : 
I now sing you a song of action:-—^ 

** ' Say-well is good, but do-well is better, 
Do-well seems spirit, say-well the letter. 
Say- well is godly, and helpeth to please ; 
But do-well lives godly and gives the world ease. 
Say-well to silence sometimes is bound, 
But do-well is free on every ground. 
Say-well has friends, some here, some there, 
But do-well is welcome everywhere. 
By say-well, to many, God's word cleaves, 
But for lack of do-well it often leaves. 
If say-well and do-well were bound in one frame, 
Then all were done, all were won, and gotten 
were gain.' " 

Once more there was a moment's pause; 
but only a moment's. My prophet still 
spoke : 

"You may think I have told you all my 
history, but there is one item I have kept for 
the last. Do you know that, as a child 



24 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

standing on tip-toe and holding a clover-blossom 
in Ms hand, the ancients used to represent 
Hope ? 

"This is the last thing I have to say to 
you to-day. You found me in the dust by 
the road-side, but I tried to lift my head 
so high that you could see I was looking 
up to heaven. I wanted you to see that 
I was thinking of something else than the 
dust and the heat. I know that if my 
blossom fades and my leaf withers I shall 
come forth in the Springtime. The germ 
of life is not withered by the sun nor 
blasted . by the snow. I shall not die, nor 
will you. 

"This hope sustains me when the wind 
beats me down; when some clownish foot 
treads me into the earth. Let it sustain you 
in all sorrow and misfortune. Shall not the 
same gracious power that keeps my life pre- 
serve yours also? Is there not something in 
your sacred book— ^Behold the tabernacle of 



A WAYSIDE PROPHET. 25 

God is with men, and lie shall dwell with 
them and they shall be his people, and God 
himself shall be with them and be their God ; 
and he shall wipe away every tear from their 
eyes; and death shall be no more; neither 
shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain 
any more'?" 

And so the clover ended as it began, — the 
voice of God. 



THE JOY IN HARVEST. 



They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. 

Though he goeth on his way weeping, bearing 
forth the seed, 

He shall come again with joy, bringing his sheaves 
with him. — Psalms. 

The year goes wrong and tares grow strong, 

Hope starves without a crumb ; 

But God's time is our harvest time. 

And that is sure to come. 

— Lewis J, Bates. 

Sow thy seed and reap in gladness I 

Man himself is all a seed ; 
Hope and hardship, joy and sadness 

Slow the plant to ripeness lead. 

— John Sterling. 

Some day Love shall claim his own, 
Some day Eight ascend his throne. 
Some day hidden Truth be known — 
Some day, some sweet day. 

— Lewis J. Bates. 

(28) 



THE JOY IN HARVEST. 



When the year has run its course from the 
bud of Springtime, through Summer's leaf 
and blossom, to Autumn's golden grain and 
purple clusters, we find that its early promise 
has not been broken. The fields yield their 
increase. There is food in the land. Over all 
adverse forces the harvest has been victorious. 
Its golden banners wave in triumph. ^^Thou 
crownest the year with thy goodness." 

There are richer harvests than those that 
spring from the earth, than those represented 
by shining wheat and waving corn. The 
harvests of the soul, those that are seen in 
character, are far more precious than any into 
which the reaper thrusts his sickle. How 



30 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

often, too, is the sowing done in tears! how 
often is the seed, from which these results 
spring, borne forth with weeping! Yet are 
we cheered by the hope that the corn and 
wheat of the spirit shall at last be gathered 
in joy. So do we 

*'.... forecast the years, 
And find in loss a gain to match ; 
And reach a hand through time to catch 
The far-off interest of tears." 

Let us consider two or three parallels 
between the natural and spiritual harvests: 

The harvest is the aim and object of all 
that goes before — of the various agencies and 
processes employed. 

No one would clear away forests and prepare 
fields were it not for the crops he expects to 
raise. To this end every energy is bent; for 
this purpose every implement is used. 

It is so in human life. Eesults are what 
we look for; results are what God seeks. 



THE JOY IN HARVEST. 31 

"The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, 
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithful- 
ness, meekness, temperance.'^ These are God's 
objects in our hearts. This is the harvest 
toward whose ripening he makes everything 
contribute. The development of character 
along ascending lines lies nearest the heart 
of God. That object he will accomplish 
whatever agencies of his love may be called 
into requisition, whatever ages of time or 
eternity may be demanded. 

There may be mentioned, in particular, two 
or three qualities in human character whose 
cultivation is suggested by the harvest. 

Benevolence. The old Hebrew poets beheld 
God in all things. In the bounties of the earth 
his own generosity invited them to imitation. 
A beautiful custom there was in that far-off 
time — the custom of leaving the corners of 
the fields, the gleanings after the crop was 
gathered, the berries on the olive-trees after 
the first picking — for the poor and the stranger. 



32 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

In the joy of harvest the needy were not for- 
gotten. No cry of woe jarred with minor chord 
in the anthem of gladness. Our benevolence 
may show itself in different ways, but the 
spirit is one and the same through the ages. 

Patience. The harvest does not tread upon 
the heels of the Springtime. ^' First the 
blade, then the ear, after that the full corn 
in the ear.'^ The order in the spiritual 
harvest is the same. We must have patience 
with ourselves and with others. A man with a 
hard, rough, intractable disposition has a farm 
that is hard to till, but it must be brought 
under cultivation. Let him not become dis- 
couraged if his progress be slow. How much 
of preparation, of hard toil in damp mornings 
and under sultry noons, must go to the field 
that is to produce the harvest! How many 
an acre of fruitful land to-day was once 
covered with forests, dotted with stumps, 
rough with stones ! What is possible in the 
outward world is possible within. 



THE JOY IX HARVEST. 33 

John calls himself " the disciple whom Jesus 
loved.'^ At first it seems an ebullition of 
vanity. But look again. Who was John 
when Jesus called him ? A rough, roistering 
fisherman. What was his disposition after he 
entered the chosen company? ^^A son of 
thunder/' an aspirant for a place of honor in 
the coming kingdom, a vengeful spirit who 
wished to call down fire from heaven to 
consume the offending Samaritans. It was 
not an expression of vanity, but rather of 
astonishment, that Jesus should have loved 
such a one as he. And this same John, in 
later years, became more and more different 
from all that he had been at first — became 
so gentle and loving ! 

Such transformations are seen to-day. The 
experience of John is not a single incident, 
from a far-away time. There is nothing 
exceptional about it. Let no one be dis- 
couraged at the obstacles he finds within, 
nor at those he finds without. IS'o man is 



34 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

responsible for inheritance, place, condition, 
any more than the farmer is responsible for 
swamp, stumps and rocks. But he who wants 
a harvest must ivork for it, whether it be in 
the soil or in the soul; and from all the 
hard conditions of life power may be wrested. 

Faith, Every Springtime is a season of 
faith; every harvest makes the next season's 
faith more possible. Every seed sown is sown 
by an act of faith; every head of wheat or 
ear of corn is an argument for faith. It 
makes him who sows believe in the outcome — 
in the harvest. 

I do not mean, by faith, an intellectual 
assent to certain propositions ; but a conviction 
of the sufficiency of righteous principles and 
their final triumph. A man believes with all 
his heart in that by which he lives. I do 
not ask you what you believe about Jesus; 
but have you faith enough in his spirit and 
principles to plant them in your own life, 
trusting that they will bring forth the harvest 



THE JOY IN HARVEST. 35 

you need? This is faith; all else is abstract 
discussion or barren speculation. 

Moreover, have you faith that these same 
seeds will bring forth a similar harvest for 
all the universe ? 

Eobert CoUyer says : ^' I used to do a bit 
of gardening a long while ago, and raise a 
few flowers; and once I got from a good 
friend a seed or two of a rare and unique 
sort, and went to work to raise a wealth of 
bloom. But the soil was not right, and the 
sun came too late upon that side of the 
house, and the fine promise did not come 
true. Still, one cup flashed forth; and, when 
all was over and the frosts came, I found a 
seed or two again in the wreck of my hope, 
and said, ^I will save these for the new 
Summer; they are proof that there will be 
one, if I had no other.' And so when the 
new Spring came I set them in a richer tilth, 
and fairer to the sun, and lo ! my flowers 
were the wonder of my garden. ... It is the 



36 A CHILD OF XATURE. 

parable/' concludes Mr. CoUyer, ^^of the ever- 
lasting gospel of God — not a plant in his 
garden just like another, and no best without 
a better hanging in the heavens which we 
must bring down. The soil, how hard it is 
for some, or how gross ; and the sun, how late 
he comes to some; and the things that stab 
and sting, how cruel they are to root and 
stalk in some ! and we say : What a blight, 
what a wreck! But this is God's husbandry 
as well as ours; and ^AU souls are mine,' 
saith the Lord ; and within the saddest 
frustration there is still a seed to be saved 
and sown again to the immortal life, in never- 
failing worlds, for mortal creatures, conquered 
and secured." 

The harvest is not only the object of 
all that goes before, it also justifies the 
processes that precede it. The preliminaries, 
all toil and pain, are to be read in the light 
that flashes from waving grain and ripened 



THE JOY IX HARVEST. 37 

fruit. No one in the presence of purple 
clusters and golden sheaves is sorry that he 
worked and wept. The toil of the ploughman, 
the weary steps of the sower, are to be 
regarded, not in themselves, but in their 
relation to the end of all. 

If we may imagine the feelings of a field 
when it is undergoing prei)aration for the 
seed-sowing, we may suppose that the rooting 
up of stumps, the burning of logs, the ripping 
of the ploughshare, the iron teeth of the 
harrow, are anything but pleasant to that 
piece of ground; but, when the harvest rolls 
its billows of gold, the field will be satisfied. 
Everywhere in human life good is born of 
sorrow ; everything worth having costs. Gain 
is the child of loss, strength comes from the 
wilderness of temptation. The joyful reaper 
was the weeping sower. The sheaves that 
are gathered with rejoicing come from seeds 
that were watered with tears. But the joy 
justifies the sorrow. The song of the reaper 



38 A CHILD OF KATUKE. 

justifies the toil and pain of the sower. 
The harvest in character justifies the severe 
processes by which it ripened. Suffering, 
sorrow, loss — these are not to be looked at 
in themselves ; neither are they to be regarded 
as visitations of divine vengeance; they all 
belong to those mighty processes by which 
we are being brought from a state of 
ignorance and imperfection to loftier and 
nobler manhood. They are all connected with 
our moral education and training. By rude 
and harsh instrumentalities are we made 
better and more widely useful. 

When we are born into this world we are 
as far away from harmony as an untuned 
instrument, and God puts us into harmony 
with the key-note, sounded in his own bosom, 
very much as the tuner does the instrument. 
We groan and cry and wail as the piano does, 
but we are on the way to perfect and 
joyous strains of music. Pain is educational 
and disciplinary, inseparable from a state 



THE JOY IN HARVEST. 39 

of ignorance and imperfection; not punitive, 
retaliatory, vengeful. 

* 'Angel of Pain, I think thy face 
Will be, in all the heavenly place, 
The sweetest face that I shall see ; 
The swiftest face to smile on me. 
All other angels faint and tire ; 
Joy wearies and forsakes Desire ; 
Hope falters, face to face with fate, 
And dies because it cannot wait ; 
And Love cuts short each loving day, 
Because fond hearts cannot obey 
That subtlest law which measures bliss 
By what it is content to miss. 
But thou, O loving, faithful Pain — 
Hated, reproached, rejected, slain — 
Dost only closer cling and bless 
In sweeter, stronger steadfastness. 
Dear, patient angel, to thine own 
Thou comest, and art never known 
Till, late, in some lone twilight place. 
The light of thy transfigured face 
Shines sudden out, and, speechless, they 
Know they have walked with God all day." 



Still another parallel suggests itself between 
the outward and the inward harvest. It is 
the hope of the harvest that is the inspiration 



40 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

of the husbandman. Because the sower hopes 
to reap in joy he is willing to sow in 
tears. Because he hopes to come again with 
rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him, he 
is willing to bear forth the precious seed wdth 
weeping. 

All that we do must be done in hope. I 
know how hard and seemingly unproductive 
are many of the fields in which we labor; 
but the harvest will come. 

In the little poem by Venable, a teacher 
worn and weary, discouraged by his ill- 
success, falls asleep over his desk at the 
close of the day, and sees in vision a 
church, a senate, a beautiful home. Some- 
thing familiar there is about preacher, states- 
man, household divinity; and at last he 
recognizes in them his own most intractable 
pupils. By this dream of the future harvest 
he was cheered. 

The familiar poem of Longfellow recurs 
tons: 



THE JOY IX HARVEST. 41 

** I shot an arrow into the air ; 
It fell to earth, I knew not where, 
For so swiftly it flew, the sight 
Could not follow it in its flight. 

*' I breathed a song into the air ; 
It fell to earth, I knew not where, 
For who has sight so keen and strong 
That it can follow the flight of song ? 

" Long, long afterward, in an oak, 
I found the arrow, still unbroke ; 
And the song, from beginning to end, 
I found again in the heart of a friend." 

Hope makes light our burdens, puts songs 
under our crosses, plants flowers in the vine- 
yards where we labor. We need to work, it 
is true, from a sense of duty; because 
the tasks are laid upon us. But when we 
labor in hope, as well as under orders, our 
service will be more effectively and vigorously 
rendered. We shall do our work all the 
better if, in breaking the soil and planting 
the seed, we are cheered by a vision of 
ripened harvests and gathered sheaves. 



42 A CHILD OF NATURES. 

Once upon a time (runs an old allegory) 
certain strong laborers were sent forth by 
the great king to level a primeval forest, to 
plough it, sow it and bring to him the 
harvest. They were stout-hearted and strong, 
and willing to labor, and much they needed 
all their strength. One stalwart laborer was 
named Industry, — consecrated work was his. 
Patience, with thews of steel, went with him 
and tired not in the longest days nor under 
the heaviest labors. To help them, they had 
Zeal, clothed with ardent and indomitable 
energy. Side by side there stood his kinsman, 
Self-denial, and his friend Importunity. They 
all went forth to their labor, and they took, 
to cheer them in their toils, their well-beloved 
sister Hope. It was well they did, for ere 
the work was done they needed the music of 
her consolation. The forest trees were huge, 
and demanded many sturdy blows of the axe. 
One by one the giant forest-kings were 
overthrown, but the labor was immense and 



THE JOY IJs^ HARVEST. 43 

incessant. At night, when they went to their 
rest; as they crossed their threshold. Patience 
and Self-denial would be encouraged by the 
sweet voice of Hope singing, "God will bless 
us, even our God will bless us." They felled 
the lofty trees to the music of that strain. 
They cleared the acres one by one. They 
tore from their sockets the huge roots, They 
delved in the soil, and sowed the corn, often 
much discouraged, but still held to their work 
by silver chains and golden fetters, while 
Hope chanted, "God will bless us, even our 
God will bless us." They never could refrain 
from service, for Hope never could refrain from 
song. They were ashamed to be discouraged, 
they were shocked to be despairing, for still 
the voice rang clearly out at noon and 
eventide : " God will bless us, even our God 
will bless us." 

You know the parable, you recognize the 
voice. God will bless us — for his work is 
our work and our work is his. We are 



44 . A CHILD OF KATITRE. 

laborers in his fields, and he is looking for 
the harvest ! A glorious one it will be ! 

What is there in a grain of wheat? Many 
a one would say, "It is too small to con- 
sider/' But why ? Behold it. I see in that 
grain of wheat something that has turned the 
wilderness into a fruitful plain; that has led 
the march of empire westward. I see a 
thousand fields where hundreds of men are 
at work. I see the scythe and sickle giving 
way to the improved machinery of modern 
times. I see in that little grain of wheat 
something that has created the great railway- 
lines of the West and Northwest. I see 
gigantic mills rising. I see the white wings 
of the ships that bear the product of those 
mills across the seas to other continents. I 
see in that grain of wheat the hope of nations 
on whom the sx)ectral form of famine glares, 
the loaf that shall drive hunger from the 
world. This is the vision that rises before 
us as we look at the tin}^ grain. 



THE JOY IX HARVEST. 45 

And more than this the great God sees in 
every human soul. 

"But what of those/^ do you ask, "who 
perish in ignorance; in their undeveloped, 
unripe state ? ^' Is not God lord of all 
worlds ? Does he look for the whole of his 
harvest in one little patch? When we speak 
of the possibilities of the future, we are not, 
of course, in the region of the demonstrable; 
but we may judge from the past, we may 
draw inferences from the present. And, so 
judging, the future development of the most 
unripe spirit will be marvelous above all that 
we can think. When this body, which to 
many is a veritable body of death, — seat of 
strong passions, and of appetites often morbid 
and inherited, which constantly tempt to sin, — 
shall have been cast aside; when the greater 
light of the other world shall dawn; when 
the hampering conditions, into which many are 
born here, shall have disappeared, — who shall 
measure the possible harvest of the spirit? 



46 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

Who shall compute the results in character 
and achievement for the lowliest of earth? 
In the hope of such a harvest for all souls, 
let us labor. 

**It groweth here with toil and care, 
But the harvest time of love is there/' 



MONUMENTS OF THE LEAVES. 



As the days of a tree shall be the days of my 
people ; and my chosen shall long enjoy the works of 
their hands. They shall not labor in vain nor bring 
forth for calamity. — Isaiah. 

Pleasures lie thickest where no pleasures seem ; 

There's not a leaf that falls upon the ground 
But holds some joy of silence or of sound, 

Some sprite begotten of a summer dream. 

— Blanchard, 

All is concentrated in a life intense, 
Where not a beam, nor air, nor leaf is lost. 
But hath a part of being. — Byron, 

(48) 



MONUMENTS OF THE LEAVES, 



I KNOW not why writers or preachers 
should ever sound a mournful note. People 
have burdens enough to bear without having 
additional ones laid upon them by the book 
or paper they take up, or by the Sunday 
sermon. The business man who, over the 
printed page, or in his pew on Sunday, 
finds himself calculating how to meet obli- 
gations that run into thousands when he has 
only hundreds in the bank, needs nothing 
to deepen the shadows about him. The 
woman who gets a spare hour from her 
household cares, who is anxious how to feed 
several hungry little mouths and keep worn 
garments in proper repair, does not need to 
be told that life is a vale of tears. Her 



50 . A CHILD OF NATURE. 

tears fall full often. Enough of gloom men 
and women know without telling. It is for 
the author and preacher to throw into the sad 
and perplexed lives of those for whom they 
labor a ray of gladness and hope, to pluck 
the thorns and gild the clouds, to hold 
before the struggling and tempted an ideal 
of strength and victory. 

The autumn season is suggestive of melan- 
choly to certain minds, when they look upon 
the forests and behold only brown masses of 
shriveled foliage where the banners of Summer 
had waved so proudly; when they see trees, 
without even a withered leaf, stand desolate, 
their black tracery of branches against the 
yellow evening sky. 

But, courage and joy, despite the landscape! 
The leaves that have fallen — giving people 
no end of trouble over their lawns ; nestling 
along the walks or lying rotting upon wayside 
pools — come to us with even a higher 
message than they did in Springtime. How 



MONUMENTS OF THE LEAVES. 51 

glad we were to see them, when they came 
forth in their freshness and beauty! Now, 
"none so poor to do them reverence." But, 
even as they lie dishonored under our feet, 
we shall do well to become their disciples. 
The evangel they bring us is not that "we 
all do fade as a leaf," but that, before we 
fade as the leaf, we must work as did the 
leaf, patiently and lovingly, to accomplish 
something whereby men shall remember us 
after we have faded and fallen from the tree 
of life. 

If you go out after a shower you will find 
upon the stone-walks the shapes of the leaves 
that lie there imprinted in dust. The outline 
and entire framework are distinct. But that 
impression will be washed away and forgotten : 
the leaves have more important and lasting 
memorials. 

"If ever in Autumn," says Euskin, "a 
pensiveness falls upon us as the leaves drift 
by in their fading, may we not wisely look 



62 . A CHILD OF NATURE. 

up in hope to their mighty monuments ? 
Behold how fair, how far prolonged in arch 
and aisle, the avenues of the valleys, the 
fringes of the hills. So stately, so eternal; 
the joy of man, the comfort of all living 
creatures, the glory of the earth, — they are 
but the monuments of these poor leaves that 
flit faintly past us to die. Let them not pass 
without our understanding their last counsel 
and example; that we also, careless of 
monument by the grave, may build it in the 
world — monument by which men may be 
taught to remember, not where we died, but 
where we lived.'^ Eeally, there is nothing 
more melancholy in a tree, stripped of its 
leaves, than in a completed building after 
the scaffolding has been torn down and the 
workmen have departed. When the leaves 
take on their last bright hues and flee away, 
the work of the year has been accomplished. 

Isaiah says : "As the days of a tree shall 
be the days of my people; and my chosen 



MOIS'UMENTS OF THE LEAVES. 53 



shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 
They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth 
-for calamity." They shall work as fruitfully 
as the leaves, and the results of their labors 
shall stand as a tree, living from generation 
to generation. There is no gloom in that 
message. It bids the toiler look up and be 
of good cheer. The purple haze of Autumn 
becomes mellow with golden light. 

Driving through the woods a few days ago, 
I questioned as closely as I might the few 
remaining bits of foliage, to learn the secret 
of their work; how such tiny things could 
rear such stately pillars. I asked of all — of 
the almost triangular leaves of the birch, 
the slender ones of the willow, those of 
the maple, broad and palm-shaped, and the 
strong, deeply cleft leaves of the oak — how 
they wrought. They gave me hints that 
we all may well observe. The methods of 
nature are best for man. Let him look 
where the Divine Will freely expresses itself, 



54 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

unhindered by the human, and find his highest 
suggestions. 

The first lesson the leaves gave me was 
this : they work unitedly. 

There is no schism or discord among them. 
They do not quarrel and break up into 
antagonistic parties. They work for one 
object, — the upbuilding of the tree. Man 
takes the result of their work, and turns 
it into spear-handle and gun-stock; but no 
weapon of destruction is used by builder- 
leaf upon its fellow-builder. They work 
together, each one in its place, and by their 
combined efforts the tree is lifted, upon 
broader foundations, into larger areas of 
shade. 

How they throw contempt upon our petty 
strifes, and teach us that, in the world's 
mighty work, we should stand shoulder to 
shoulder; that life is too short and too 
precious to allow creeds and parties to keep 
us asunder, while the cry of humanity, 



MOXUMENTS OF THE LEAVES. 55 

struggling for light and dying in darkness, 
reaches our ears ! 

How much force is expended in vain 
controversy that might be given to beneficent 
work ! The world is not so rich in moral 
resources that it can afford to cast aside the 
slightest contribution. Whether that con- 
tribution comes from Catholic or Protestant, 
from orthodox or liberal, from him who 
is inside the church or from him who is 
outside, it ought to be gratefully accepted and 
used. United effort builds the tree. Upon 
the branches of the forest they are not 
"evangelicaP^ or ^^leretical.'^ No leaf despises 
its fellow-leaf. They rejoice together, and 
teach us that the true creed for men is that 
of the loving heart and willing hand. . 

*' Think truly, and thy thought 
Shall the world's famine feed ; 

Speak truly, and thy word 
Shall be a fruitful seed ; 

Live truly, and thy life shall be 
A great and noble creed." 



56 . A CHILD OF NATURE. 

Working thus together, the labor of no 
single leaf is lost. Each counts for some- 
thing. No matter when it falls from the 
tree, it has not wrought in vain. 

There are multitudes of discouraged souls 
in this world who toil and feel that their 
labor is naught. They are common workmen, 
in field or upon stately edifices; they are 
faded and overworked women in the house- 
hold, whose monotonous round of duties is 
never broken by an hour's pleasure ; they are 
children whose busy hands carry the dinner- 
pail to father, or rock the cradle for mother. 
They live in obscurity and die unnoticed. 
But the world is richer for their work. He 
without whose knowledge no sparrow falls to 
the ground, who notes the course of every 
falling leaf, sees to it that no honest toil 
of human life, however hard and homely, is 
wasted. Man judges by the magnitude of 
outward achievement. God puts his measure 
about the heart. 



MO]S"UMENTS OF THE LEAVES. 57 

The tiniest leaflet helps the tree. So the 
tiniest leaflet that falls from the tree of life 
has done its work. 

What was the value of your baby's ex- 
istence — the little one who opened his 
wondering eyes for a moment to close them 
forever? Was its value nothing? No heart 
is quite the same after a baby has come and 
gone. The dainty fingers so twine themselves 
about your affection that when death tears 
them away it seems as if your very soul were 
rent. But all is not pain and desolation. 
The rod that smites^ like the rod in Horeb, 
opens a fountain in the rock. That little life 
has subdued the temper of your own; has 
made you more gentle and patient and loving. 
Its innocence has made you pure, its weakness 
has tamed your rude strength and made you 
more tender. The dear face that you see by 
day and by night beckons you into paths of 
righteousness and peace. Yea, though you 
walk through the valley of the shadow of 



58 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

death^ you will fear no evil ; for, lo ! the little 
feet of your child have tracked the dark 
pathway with glory. So the tiniest leaflet 
does its work. 

Another lesson the leaves whispered, as 
I talked with them that afternoon: they 
work unselfishly. 

Their unselfishness is shown in their respect 
for the rights of other leaves. They may 
know nothing about the Golden Eule, but 
they observe it better than men do. 

^^You shall find/' says Euskin, "the gentle 
law of respect and room for each other truly 
observed by the leaves in such broken way as 
they can manage it; but in the nation, we 
find every one scrambling for his neighbor's 
place.'' The leaves do not grow as they 
would like to, perhaps, in all cases. They do 
not go forward till they run against other 
leaves, and fight till they displace them, or, 
being conquered, turn svilkily back. They 
anticipate each other's growth, and adjust 



MONUMENTS OF THE LEAVES. 59 

themselves to it. The shadow of a leaf above 
causes the one below to change its position 
for the better advantage of all — so sensitive 
are they to the rights of others, to the 
interests of all. They have no disputes as 
between labor and capital, and do not trouble 
themselves about monopolies. Looking upon 
the leaves drifting past in the autumn gusts, 
we may remember that one of their lessons 
was, ^^ Behold, how good and how pleasant it 
is for brethren to dwell together in unity!'' 

The pine is usually supposed to be inhos- 
pitable. But one summer afternoon, lying 
in a certain grove, I looked up and saw that 
the pines and the maples got on very lovingly 
together. The pines did not crowd the maple- 
branches, but gave their spreading foliage all 
the room they needed, and, themselves, grew 
straight and bare until they had shot up 
beyond the maple-boughs, when they put 
forth their tufts of endless green. 

The ^^unselfishness" of leaves is shown not 



60 . A CHILD OF NATURE. 

only in their respect for each other, but also 
in their devotion to the life of the tree. 
Their business is to minister to the wants of 
the trunk and branches upon which they 
grow— to provide food. They get it from 
the sun and air, and where the sun and air 
are to be had there the leaves must find 
their way. They do not think of themselves. 
They may not be keeping their own symmetry 
and beauty; but they are faithful to their 
trust. Somehow they act upon the Master's 
lesson better than do many of humankind 
who claim to be his disciples : '' The Son of 
Man is not come to be ministered unto, but 
to minister. '' 

Moreover, they have a care for the future 
of the tree. There are some oak-twigs lying 
upon my desk as I write. I break off some 
of the leaves. At the base of each stem, in 
its little downy cradle, lies a bud that would 
next year be a leaf. Indeed, upon some of 
the oaks, the old leaves remain through the 



MONUMENTS OF THE LEAVES. 61 

snows and blasts of Winter, to protect these 
delicate buds ; then fall, unmurmuringly, when 
their presence is no longer needed. They are 
willing to die and be forgotten if the work to 
which they gave themselves may be carried 
on. 

What lesson more than this, of unselfish- 
ness, do we need in our jealousies and strifes, 
in our self-seeking and feverish ambitions ? 
]N"o autumn season will be in vain if we learn 
from its bits of rustling brown foliage that 
others have rights as well as ourselves, that 
the life of generous service to our fellow-men 
is the greatest and noblest to which we can 
aspire. 

Something else the leaves taught me, that 
men do not often think of : they work 
silently. 

How mighty are some of these trees ! 
How lofty they grow. How great their 
circumference. There are trees that from 
their highest branches would cast a shadow 



62 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

upon the dome of St. PauFs Cathedral; 
that would wave above the top of the 
great pyramid. Yet how silently they grew! 
The leaves that wrought these marvels of 
magnitude and strength did their work without 
sound of trowel or shout of exultation. Men 
expect to bring about great results by violence 
and noise. They think that vehemence and 
bluster count for much, that effectiveness is 
measured by capacity of lung and contortion 
of muscle. They forget the lesson of Solomon, 
"The words of a wise man heard in quiet 
are more than the cry of him that ruleth 
among fools.^' Gentleness is power; wisdom 
needs no brawling mob to enforce its mandates. 
Carlyle says: "Silence is the element in 
which great things fashion themselves together, 
that at length they may emerge, full-formed 
and majestic, into the daylight of life which 
they are thenceforward to rule. Not William 
the Silent only, but all the considerable men 
I have known, and the most undiplomatic 



MONUMENTS OF THE LEAVES. 63 

and strategic of these, forbore to babble of 
what they were creating and projecting. Nay, 
in thine own mean perplexities do thou 
thyself but hold thy tongue for one day, — 
on the morrow how much clearer are thy 
purposes and duties; what wreck and rubbish 
have these mute workmen within thee swept 
away, when intrusive noises were shut out." 

A final lesson the leaves taught me: they 
work reverently. 

The tendency of our times is to question 
all that went before us — to regard the work 
of other generations as naught. Every noble 
monument of religion, literature, art, has been 
tarnished by sacrilegious touch. Without 
worshiping the achievements of the past, we 
yet cannot disconnect ourselves from them 
and work to any purpose. The divine plan 
which underlies all our human plans, which 
unifies all human effort, binds us to the best 
and most enduring deeds that our fathers 
have wrought, as the tree unites the work of 



64 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

the last leaf that fell with the first that 
budded. We cannot dig down and lay new 
foundations ignoring all that has been; he 
who casts aside the principles developed by 
honest toilers in the course of ages, thinking 
to build for himself a structure entirely new, 
may look to have nothing but regrets for his 
pains. Each one to-day may make a fresh 
contribution to what has been done in any 
department, but let him give himself to the 
task of addition and not of destruction. ISTo 
doubt the work of every generation contains 
much that is perishable, but this will drop 
ofE and be forgotten, leaving at last only 
that which is of permanent value. 

The great master of art and nature from 
whom we have already quoted tells us: ^^We 
who live for ourselves, and neither know how 
to use nor keep the work of past time, may 
humbly learn — as from the ant, foresight — 
from the leaf, reverence. The power of every 
great people, as of every living tree, depends 



KONUMENTS OF THE LEAVES. 65 

on its not effacing, but confirming and 
concluding, the labors of its ancestors.'^ 

Thus have I read the lessons of the 
leaves, — lessons of unison, of unselfishness, 
of silent faithfulness, of reverence. Is there 
not inspiration for us all in the suggestions 
furnished ? Fidelity counts for more than suc- 
cess ; loving purpose for more than the mighty 
arm. And through faithfulness each one of 
us may build monuments more beautiful and 
lasting than those created in the forests by 
the scattered workmen that, when their toil 
is done, strew the fields and walks. 

Let us rejoice, then, in the Autumn-time! 
No longer a season of gloom and melancholy, 
it shall fill us with enthusiasm and resolution. 
It is not the period of universal death and 
decay, but of active preparation for the 
Spring and Summer. We may look across 
the shrouds of snow that enfold the earth in 
Winter, and see the buds of a new Spring, 



66 jl child of nature. 

the blossoms of a new Summer. So, beyond 
the time when the leaves drop from the tree 
of human life, there is a sphere of gladness 
and beauty of which it is written, "Though 
the earthly house of this tabernacle be 
dissolved, we have a building of God, a house 
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.'' 
It is there that the life- structure we raise 
shall find completeness and symmetry. 



THE MISSION OF THE SNOW- 
FLAKE. 



How beautiful it was, falling so silently, all day- 
long, all night long, on the mountains, on the 
meadows, on the roofs of the living, on the graves 
of the dead ! — Longfellow, 

So, sifted through the winds that blow, 
Down comes the soft and silent snow. 
White petals from the flowers that grow 

In the cold atmosphere. 
These starry blossoms, pure and white. 
Soft falling, falling through the night. 

Have draped the woods and mere. 

— Geo. W. Bungay, 

Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. 
Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. 

— Psalmist, 

(68) 



THE MISSION OF THE SNOW- 
FLAKE. 



Whether the events of life are what we 
call special provideiices may be questioned. 
Whether the events *of life, adverse or 
favorable, ought to be improved; whether 
they may, if we apply ourselves to learn, 
teach us useful lessons and be made to enter 
into life's discipline and instruction, does not 
admit of dispute. I do not aflfirm that every- 
thing that happens is directly or purposely 
sent for our good, on the one hand, or in 
judgment upon us, on the other. I do affirm 
that out of everything which happens v\^e 
may extract good, if we seek it. The worst 
and unsightliest thing which comes to us has 



70 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

its evangel, as the ugliest toad is fabled to 
have a jewel in its preposterous head. 

In particular, whether this snow-storm, 
during the continuance of which I write, was 
sent on purpose to furnish me a theme may 
very well be doubted; but, given the snow- 
storm, it shall read us a message. 

I have stood at my window and watched 
it, looking out upon the storm as the flakes 
were whirled by the wind among the dark 
and barren branches of the trees along 
the street. I watched, as slowly the snow 
gathered upon walks and streets and roofs of 
houses, until 

" The poorest twig on the elm-tree 
Was ridged inch-deep with pearl." 

And it has all seemed a pure white page of 
the gospel, fresh from God. "He saith to 
the snow. Be thou on the earth.^' Surely it 
is charged with some message from the wise 
and loving Power that encircles the earth. 



THE MISSION OF THE SNOW-FLAKE. 71 

"Fire and hail, snow and vapor, storm and 
wind, fulfil his will.'^ 

He who is represented as speaking from 
the cloud and whirlwind, asks Job, "Hast 
thou entered into the treasures of the snow?'' 
Perhaps the writer meant to ask whether Job 
had wisdom enough to find out the secret 
storehouses from which the snow came. But 
we may ask, Hast thou discovered the wealth 
of meaning in its flakes ? Hast thou dis- 
covered the lessons that they teach? Hast 
thou entered into these treasures of the snow? 

The snow-storm is a revelation of the 
divine. There is in it a sweeter theology 
than that of Augustine and Calvin, and 
something higher than a bread and butter 
morality. 

Old prophets and teachers did not fear to 
read Nature face to face, nor did they fail to 
find there the Life that animated all. They 
did not feel that they were getting away 
from God when they stood enraptured among 



72 A CHILD OF i^ATURfi. 

his works. Nay, their hearts were stirred 
more deeply, and they struck from their 
harps more triumphant chords, when they 
beheld his great and manifold works, and 
knew that "in wisdom he had made them 
all." 

The Psalmist looked out as the dainty 
flakes fluttered through the still air of Judea, 
and sang, "He giveth snow like wool," — so 
soft and fleecy was it, so gently did it fall, 
robing the valley in dazzling garments and 
setting a crown of light upon the sacred 
hill! 

"As the rain cometh down, and the snow 
from heaven," exclaimed Isaiah, "and return 
not thither, but water the earth, and make it 
bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to 
the sower and bread to the eater, so shall 
my word he that goeth forth out of my 
mouth." 

Jeremiah drew instruction for the people 
from the "snows of Lebanon," and some of 



THE MISSION OF THE SNOW-FLAKE. 73 

the Proverbs came from a similar source. 
"As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, 
so is a faithful messenger to them that send 
him; for he refresheth the soul of his 
masters.'' There is this other also, not quite 
so complimentary to its subject: "As snow 
in Summer and as rain in harvest, so honor 
is not seemly for a fool." (It is very much 
out of place; and yet he sometimes gets the 
honor — even from wise men.) 

Modern poets and prophets also have found 
inspiration in the flying flakes and drifted 
banks. Emerson has a description of the 
storm's arrival, "Announced by all the trumpets 
of the sky." We cannot forget the pictures 
in Whittier's well-known poem, for we all 
have seen the realities. Who does not know 
how 

" The old familiar sights of ours 
Took marvelous shapes ; strange domes and towers 
Rose up where sty and corn-crib stood, 
Or garden- wall, or belt of wood ; 
A smooth white mound the brush-iDile showed, 



74 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

A fenceless drift what once was road ; 

The bridle-post an old man sat 

With loose-flung coat and high-cocked hat ; 

The well-curb had a Chinese roof ; 

And even the long sweep, high aloof, 

In its slant splendor, seemed to tell 

Of Pisa's leaning miracle "? 

Bryant, in his ^^ Winter Piece/' has sung of 
the "clouds that from their still skirts had 
shaken down on earth the feathery snow, 
and all was white/' The exquisite poem by 
Lowell; the "First Snow-fall/' recalling a 
great sorrow, teaches a lesson of patience 
and trust: 

" I stood and watched by the window 
The noiseless work of the sky, 
And the sudden flurries of snow-birds, 
Like brown leaves whirling by. 

*' I thought of a mound in sweet Auburn, 
Where a little head-stone stood ; 
How the flakes were folding it gently 
As did robins the babes in the wood ! 

'* Up spoke our own little Mabel, 

Saying, ' Father, who makes it snow ? ' 



THE MISSIOX OF THE SNOW-FLAKE. 75 

And I told of the good All-Father 
Who cares for us here below. 

*^ Again I looked at the snow-fall, 
And thought of the leaden sky- 
That arched our first great sorrow, 
When the mound was heaped so high. 

*'I remember the gradual patience 

That fell from that cloud like snow, 
Flake by flake, healing and hiding 
The scar of our deep-plunged woe. 

*' And again to the child I whispered, 
' The snow that husheth all, 
Darling, the merciful Father 
Alone can make it fall.' " 

" What is Nature ? " demands Carlyle. "Art 
thou not the living garment of God? 
heavens, is it, in very deed, He, then, that 
ever speaks through thee; that lives and 
loves in thee, that lives and loves in me ? 
Sweeter than day-spring to the ship-wrecked 
in Nova Zembla,"' ah, like the mother's voice 
to her little child that strays bewildered, 
weeping, in unknown tumults ; like soft 



76 .A CHILD OF NATURE. 

streamings of celestial music to my too 
exasperated heart, came that evangel. The 
universe is not dead and demoniacal, a 
charnel-house with spectres; but God-like and 
my Father's!" 

We sometimes forget that God is anywhere 
but in the Springtime and Summer; that he 
shows himself in aught save the grass of the 
field and the lily of the valley. But, after 
all, a snow-flake is as wonderful and beautiful 
a thing as a rose. Marvelously is each flake 
fashioned into stellar shape, shooting out its 
rays alive with the glory of Him who lighted 
the stars overhead. What variety of form 
and detail based upon this general type ! ISTo 
two alike ! God never repeats himself in a 
snow-flake any more than he does in a man. 
How infinite his resources ! How varied his 
productions ! There is uniformity in nature, 
but no monotony. 

What immense power and skill are exhibited 
in a snow-storm! If, as recent calculations 



THE MISSION OF THE SXOW-FLAKE. 77 

seem to show, a foot of snow is equal 
in weight to an inch of rain, a foot of 
snow falling upon an area of one square 
mile would weigh sixty-four thousand tons. 
Multiply by the extent of any given storm, 
and how enormous the weight ! Yet this 
tremendous mass was first lifted up in the 
form of vapor by the sun, deftly builded 
and carved into wonderful and beautiful 
shapes by the architects and sculptors of the 
atmosphere, and let down again to earth so 
gently that there was no shock or disturbance. 
Truly, God is here manifested. Every snow- 
flake declares his glory and shows forth his 
handiwork. It does not seem presumptuous 
to project into "Winter the lesson that Jesus 
taught when he said, "If God so clothe the 
grass of the field.'' 

The grass of the field is gone. But here 
is this feathery tuft of snow, — if God so 
carefully and skilfully fashion this, if he sees 
that no atom is wanting to its perfection, 



78 , X CHILD OF NATURE. 

how much more hath he planned for you, 
ye of little faith! "Not a sparrow falleth 
without your Father/' said Jesus. Truly ; but 
the birds of the air have flown. The same 
Power, however, guides upon its appointed 
path, through all the mazes of the storm, 
amid all the countless hosts that fly about it, 
each separate particle of snow. The same 
Father who cares for the sparrow directs the 
snow-flake; and shall he not guide thee in 
safety, and bring thee at last to thy rest in 
his bosom, — thou who art of more value than 
many sparrows, of more value than a sky-full 
of snow-flakes ? 

"He saith to the snow. Be thou on the 
earth.'' To what end? "There is no such 
thing in nature as bad weather," says a 
Scotch poet. And Coleridge adds, "In nature 
there is nothing melancholy." To what end, 
then, the snow ? 

Accumulating on the tops of high mountains 
during the months of Winter, it is preparing 



THE MISSION OF THE SNOW-FLAKE. 79 

to make more tolerable the burning Summers 
of many a land. The breezes that in those 
seasons sweep over the mountains gather 
from eternal snows moisture for consuming 
vegetation and coolness for the fevered brow 
of man. Here, too, are the sources of 
many a stream that waters the earth. The 
fountains from which they flow are forever 
kept full by the melting snow. One Summer, 
as we sat upon the hill behind the little town 
of Altdorf, looking across the valley of the 
Eeuss at the Alps beyond, high above the 
other peaks rose, brown and bald, the summits 
that were covered with eternal snow. Upon 
those stern and gloomy peaks no vegetation 
grows. They are never furrowed by the share 
of the ploughman or vexed by the reaper's 
sickle. They have no tree or grass or 
blossom; and I fancy that a feeling of 
sadness sometimes comes over them, when 
they think that no bright colors or golden 
grain will ever adorn them. But they nobly 



80 . A CHILD OF NATURE. 

clo what they can. They gather and hold 
the snow, and send it down in cooling streams 
to the valleys, making all vegetation possible, 
giving life to the trees and grasses and 
flowers below. The smiles of Spring and 
the gladness of Summer and the glory of 
Autumn unite in thanksgiving to the snow. 

In severe climates the rigors of Winter are 
rendered less terrible by the snows it brings 
with it. They wrap the plants in their soft, 
warm mantles, and protect them from the 
frost. They afford in those climates shelter 
to certain animals who bury themselves in 
the drifts till Spring calls them forth. Even 
in more temperate zones the presence of snow 
is a most valuable safeguard to vegetation, 
"pulverizing and moistening the ground, and 
affording warmth where it is much needed.'^ 

But there are other uses. "I think better 
of snow-storms,'^ says Prescott, "since I find 
that, though they keep a man's body in-doors, 
they bring his mind out/' It has also been 



THE MISSION OF THE SNOW-FLAKE. 81 

urged that, while the land is more fruitful as 
you approach the tropics, what is taken out 
of the land is put into the man as you touch 
the snow. A study of the conditions in which 
man is placed upon this jjlanet will show us 
that zones of perpetual Summer are not the 
ones most favorable to intellectual life or to 
development of the stronger qualities of 
manhood. The Temperate Zone, in which 
Winter is added to the seasons, is the one in 
which the best mental work is accomplished 
and the strongest characters built. It needs 
a dash of cold in the air, a flurry of snow in 
the atmosphere, to quicken the intellect. 

But there are other uses, and perhaps 
higher. We merge the material and mental 
into the moral. From whatever point we 
start, we must come to this at last. 

As I watched, there was the snow coming 
down. Yes, ^^He giveth snow like wool.'' 
Gradually the streets and walks of the city 
were hidden, the dust was settled at last, and 



82 . A CHILD OF NATURE. 

every unsightly thing gently and tenderly 
covered up, reminding of that charity which 
covereth a multitude of sins, which strives to 
hide the defects and faults of its object. 
Symbol is it of an earth-wide love, that folds 
this sad and sinful world in its pitying 
arms ! 

We think of that pathetic prayer of David^ — 
poor David, who had sinned so grievously and 
suffered so deeply : " Wash me, and I shall be 
whiter than snow ! " Was it the immaculate 
whiteness that spake to his conscience and 
reminded him of his lost innocence ? We 
know not; but it may bring this lesson 
to us. Remembering to-day our sins and 
transgressions, ashamed of the stains iniquity 
has left upon our souls, who of us may not 
fittingly take this prayer upon his lips and 
cry, "Wash me, and I shall be whiter than 
snow '^ ? 

A broken spirit, a broken and contrite 
heart, are the sacrifices of God. 



THE MISSION OF THE SNOW-FLAKE. 83 

" Gentle as Charity, 

Emblem of Purity, 
Coming from heaven, whence all blessings flow ! 

Would we were like thee ! 

Then would burn brightly 
The love-fires that set every heart in a glow. 

** Then would the crosses, 
The sorrows and losses, 

That vex us so sorely through life as we go. 
Change to such lightness. 
Such beauty and brightness. 

As makes thee so charming, thou beautiful snow." 

Every snow-flake is a thought of God, its 
whiteness and purity reminding of Him whose 
name is Holy, and admonishing us to let our 
thoughts be as these bright and shining 
crystals. ^^The pure in heart shall see God." 

** Still cheerily the chickadee 
Singeth to me on fence and tree ; 
But in my inmost ear is heard 
The music of a holier bird ; 
And heavenly thoughts, as soft and white 
As snow-flakes, on my soul alight. 
Clothing with love my lonely heart, 
Healing with peace each bruised part, 



84 A CHILD OE^ NATURE. 

Till all my being seems to be 
Transfigured by their purity." 

The season carries us back to childhood, 
when the first snow-storm was a heaven full 
of angels. There is a story of a lady who 
went South out of the reach of snow, lived 
there for many years, and at last came North 
again. When the first snow fell, after her 
return, she ran out to meet it with all the 
delight of a child, caught a flake in her hand, 
and kissed it. Every crystal sparkled with 
the joys of childhood. It was filled with 
early memories. Who can walk the street 
and witness the delight of children with their 
sleds and snow-balls; who can look upon the 
snow-images that their glad fingers have 
made, without thinking of the time when he 
himself was rich with the "treasures of the 
snow " ? And, though long years with their 
lights and shadows stretch between, though 
Winter's winding-sheet has season after season 
wrapped the graves of our early playmates 



THE MISSION OF THE SJSTOW-FLAKE. 85 

and the wise counsellors of our youth, yet, 
with memories of our childhood and of home, 
the snows of to-day bring back forgotten 
blessings and loving admonitions ! May these 
influences reassert their power, and hold us 
to honor and virtue ! Wordsworth sings, "And 
yet I know, where'er I go, that there hath 
passed away a glory from the earth.'' For 
us, may the vanished glory come back, borne 
by the messengers of the snow, and with it 
the vanishing counsels of those who loved 
us ! 

I wonder whether there is not another 
message the snow-flakes whisper as they come 
into our faces ? Do they not bid us remember 
the poor? Do they not remind us of the 
saying of Jesus, "The poor ye have always 
with you ? " Do they not suggest that picture 
of judgment in which, after recounting the 
deeds of kindness wrought by the righteous, 
Jesus says, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one 
of the least of these my brethren, ye did it 



86 . A CHILD OF NATURE. 

unto me ? '^ Is there not some such word as 
this brought by the white-winged messengers 
from the sky ? While the snow may remind 
us that one part of pure religion and undefiled, 
before God and the Father, is to keep 
ourselves unspotted from the world, it reminds 
of the other also, ^^to visit the fatherless and 
widows in their affliction,'^ — those to whom 
Winter means privation and suffering. 

Church festivals come and go ; but whatever 
public religious service we attend, we may 
well add to it always, so far as each is able, 
a private service, — of some substantial kind. 
It is related that in an English village a 
poor man, who had a large family, gave them 
a very comfortable support while he was in 
health. He broke his leg, however, and was 
laid up for some weeks. It was proposed to 
hold a prayer-meeting at his house, and the 
meeting was led by a Deacon Brown. A loud 
knock at the door interrupted the service. A 
lank, blue-frocked youngster stood at the door, 



THE MISSION OF THE SXOW-FLAKE. 87 

with, an ox-goad in his hand, and asked to 
see Deacon Brown. "Father could not attend 
this meeting/^ said the boy, "but he sent his 
prayers ; and they are out in the cart/^ They 
were brought in" in the shape of potatoes, 
beef, pork, and corn. That meeting broke up 
without a formal benediction. 

There is one thought more. A friend sent 
me from Oakland, a day or two ago, some 
flowers that were plucked in his garden while 
our section of the earth was white. 

It looks sometimes as if our Northern snow 
killed the flowers. But it is not so. In its 
gracious mantle, that we sometimes liken to 
a shroud, it folds the roots and germs of the 
grasses and flowers, keeping them safe and 
warm till the glad trumpets of Spring sound 
the resurrection, when they come forth to 
newness of life. 

"We speak of the snow," says CoUyer, 
"as an image of death. It may be that; but 
it hides the everlasting life away under its 



88 A CHILD OF KATURE. 

robe, — the life to be revealed in due time, 
when all cold shadows shall melt away before 
the ascending sun, and we shall be, not 
unclothed, but clothed upon, and mortality 
shall be swallowed up of life." 



DOWN TO THE LAKE, 



In the presence of nature, a wild deliglit runs 
through the man, in spite of real sorrows. Nature 
says,— he is my creature, and maugre all his imper- 
tinent griefs, he shall be glad with me. Not the sun 
or the Summer alone, but every hour and season 
yields its tribute of delight ; for every hour and 
change corresponds to and authorizes a different 
state of the mind, from breathless noon to grimmest 
midnight. ^Emerson. 

I care not, Fortune, what you me deny ; 

You cannot rob me of free Nature's grace, 
You cannot shut the windows of the sky 

Through which Aurora shows her brightening 
face. — Thomson. 

Stranger, if thou hast learned a truth which needs 

No school of long experience, that the world 

Is full of guilt and misery, and hast seen 

Enough of all its sorrows, crimes and cares 

To tire thee of it, enter this wild wood 

And view the haunts of Nature. The calm shade 

Shall bring a kindred calm, and the sweet breeze, 

That makes the green leaves dance, shall waft a balm 

To thy sick heart. —Bryant 

(90) 



DOWN TO THE LAKE. 



One of the most interesting characters in 
the New Testament is Peter. In spite of his 
faults and follies, we love him, — for there 
was much genuine manhood beneath his rough 
and sea-beaten exterior. Impulsive in his 
denial, he was prompt in his repentance. 
The look of his Lord, falling upon his soul 
like a sunbeam upon a frozen stream, melted 
him to tears. 

Bundle of contradictions as Peter was, there 
was in him a strong fibre of good common 
sense, that shows itself in the incident which 
suggests this study. It has been truly said, 
^^ There is no word in the Gospels of a finer 
grain than this: 'Simon Peter said, I go 
a fishing,^ — nor any word of a deeper and 



92 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

more touching pathos, when you make the 
word one with the man, and realize the worth 
there and then of what he resolved to do." 
He never spoke a grander word in all the 
years of his after ministry. 

Let us recall the circumstances. Jesus had 
been crucified. They had seen him taken by 
a howling mob and nailed to the cross. 
Perhaps they had been near enough to hear 
the cry of agony that rang out under the 
portentous skies, — "My God, my God, why 
hast thou forsaken me ! '' The light of the 
life that had guided those poor disciples, that 
had been their strength and their consolation, 
had gone out in darkness. They trusted that 
it had been he which should have redeemed 
Israel. He had spoken to them of a kingdom ; 
but he died uncrowned, save with the twisted 
thorns. Every hope is now broken, the 
foundations of their faith have given way, 
their dreams of the future have perished. 
Sorrow fills their breasts, the gloom of 



DOWN TO THE LAKE. 93 

midniglit has settled upon their minds. What 
picture can be more pathetic than that of the 
disconsolate little group, standing huddled 
together in silence upon the shores of Tiberias ! 

I wonder whether we can fully appreciate 
their circumstances at that moment. Surely 
not, if we have never been broken, as they 
were, by doubt and sorrow. But if, from any 
cause, our spirits have been filled with 
anguish and darkness, we know! Experience 
is the same through the centuries. Human 
life has not changed very much. Outwardly, 
there have been changes. In the appliances 
of life improvements have been made. For 
instance, we probably have better fishing-boats 
than Peter had. But our hearts, with their 
joys and hopes and loves and sorrows, are 
very like the hearts that, in bitter and 
starless disappointment, ages ago, mourned a 
murdered leader and a buried cause. 

I was riding with a friend a while ago; 
and, as we drove along the country roads 



94 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

fringed with grass and wild flowers, over-arched 
by the branches of wayside trees, he told me 
of a great calamity that had befallen a young 
man whom he loved. This young man had 
been brought up in one of the very straitest 
sects, had been taught the old ideas of God, 
Man, the Bible, human destiny. He firmly 
believed them, and was resting upon them. 
But by and by he found a flaw somewhere. 
He became unsettled. The opinions in which 
he had been reared no longer satisfied him. 
Honesty compelled him to cast them off. 
But he had been taught to identify them 
with the realities of life and religion, and 
knew nothing beyond. He had nothing better 
upon which to build. He felt convinced that, 
if these views were wrong, there was nothing 
substantial in religion. There could be no 
God and no immortal life. The result was 
that he was plunged from doubt into despair, 
and even meditated self-destruction. 

I know not how it comes that this incident 



DOWN TO THE LAKE. 



95 



and the one we have considered from the 
New Testament became connected in my mind. 
But there does seem to be a relationship 
between them. The shock that came to this 
young man was very like that which came to 
the disciples when Jesus was crucified. His 
faith was as firm as theirs had been, his 
disappointment as great. But what was their 
resolve ? Far nobler than the one toward 
which he seemed tending. It was reserved 
for Judas, — in a fit of remorse, not of 
doubt, — to end his own life. His example 
was one that no honest disciple seemed 
inclined to follow. 

The silence that wrapped that little group 
on the shores of Tiberias was at length 
broken by Simon Peter. His good sense 
triumphed. He exclaimed, ^^I go a fishing!'^ 
The others answered, — almost mechanically, 
no doubt, — "ThaVs the best that can be 
done. We also go with thee ! '' "All the 
ways were closed,'^ it has been finely said. 



96 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

^^ save that which led down to the beach and 
the boat.'' There was no other direction in 
which they could go, there was nothing else 
to do. So down to the lake they went. 

We can imagine what they thought: "Our 
principalities and kingdoms have vanished. 
The twelve thrones for which we hoped are 
not to be erected. No more of these rosy 
visions. He upon whose promise we relied 
has gone. Our old occupation is all that is 
left.'' 

The world was very empty to those poor 
Galileans, as they trudged over the sands on 
the lakeshore. It had been so full, so bright, 
so joyous, but a little while before. For 
three years they had walked with the Great 
Teacher. How hard it must have been to go 
back to the old fishing-smacks from which 
his voice had summoned them one glad 
morning, — it seemed ages ago ! 

Back they went, — down to the lake. There, 
at least, was something real and tangible. 



DOWN TO THE LAKE. 97 

The lake had not failed them. Whatever 
change had come over the spirit of their 
dreams, the waves of Galilee were as blue 
as ever, and as inviting. There was great 
refuge from their doubts and distress in the 
influence of that very lake. Ear from the 
excited city, freed from their own feverish 
thoughts, they could be rocked, as of old, 
upon the familiar billows, while the friendly 
stars looked down in sympathy. Perhaps by 
the morrow, the coolness of the breeze, the 
peace of the great deep, and the calm of that 
lustrous eastern sky, would bring clearer 
thought to the troubled brain. It is no 
wonder that, in our own day, so many are 
leaving the subtleties of metaphysics, the 
absurdities of theology, the whole realm of 
profitless speculation, and are devoting their 
attention to the study of nature. 

** One impulse from the vernal wood 
May teach us more of man, 
Of moral evil and of good, 
Than all the sages can." 



98 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

Even the more superficial influences of 
nature do much for us. They furnish a 
perpetual inspiration. We are helped and 
cheered by outward things more than we 
know. A drive or a brisk walk in the open 
air often exorcises the blue demons that 
at times possess us. A breath of cold 
regenerates us. Crystals of frost underfoot 
or dashes of rain in the face exhilarate and 
inspire. The sluggish pulses are quickened 
and the brain begins to dance. When the 
world inside the house looks dark and stupid, 
the wider horizon beyond city walls will 
restore us. Like the fabled Antaeus, every 
time we touch the earth our strength is 
renewed. 

Nature somehow infuses herself into us. 
We catch the spirit of the scene. There is 
life in the object that gives life to us. Upon 
how many a one has the mountain bestowed 
something of its own firmness, the sky 
something of its own tranquillity! How 



DOWN TO THE LAKE. 99 

many a one has felt his troubles borne away 
by the rushing stream at his feet, his soul 
warmed by the shining sun, his courage 
roused by the rising wind! How many a 
one has felt the unrest of his spirit speaking 
itseK out in the thunder-storm, leaving his 
bosom at peace ! How many a one has found 
his hope of immortality strengthened by the 
opening bud of the returning Spring ! 

With vividness I recall an experience of 
my own, at a time when the old foundations 
of my faith had given way, and the skies 
were black with clouds of doubt. Walking 
by the river-bank, I was suddenly startled 
into the consciousness that Spring was coming 
back. The snow lay in scattered patches; 
what remained was rapidly melting away. I 
noticed for the first time that tiny blades of 
green were pushing their way up through the 
grass that was dead and brown. The buds 
of an alder at my feet were swelling with 
new life, and the branches of the tree above 



100 . A CHILD OF NATURE. 

me gave promise of returning leaves. The 
Angel of Resurrection had gone forth and 
unloosed the graves of Winter. His voice 
was on the air, saying: "Come forth, O leaf 
and blossom! Make glad the earth, birds 
and flowers ! '^ 

I seemed a part of the entire scene, and in 
some way included in the process of renewal. 
And I thought: "Who art thou, man, that 
repliest against the power of God? Will he 
who cares for the grass of the field and the 
birds of the air forsake thee, thou of little 
faith? The energy that worketh in nature, 
the beneficent power that evermore bringeth 
the triumph of life over the ruins of death, 
will see to it that out of thy wrecked hopes 
and ambitions, thy shattered creed, thy ruined 
past, thou shalt rise to better things, to a 
nobler and grander life ! " The experience 
was as real as that of Paul on his way to 
Damascus. 

There is a lesson of confidence to be learned 



DOWN TO THE LAKE. 101 

from the stability of nature. The Psalmist 
looked upon the hills and called them ever- 
lasting. To him the earth was established 
that it could not be moved. The writer 
of Ecclesiastes beheld one generation after 
another passing away; but ^^the earth abideth 
forever.^^ Says Emerson : "Any distrust in 
the permanency of laws would paralyze 
the faculties of man. Their permanency is 
sacredly respected, and his faith therein is 
perfect. The wheel-springs of man are all 
set to the hypothesis of the permanence of 
nature.'^ 

The local disturbance of an earthquake or 
tornado does not affect the general stability. 
The incidental shock may, indeed, be needed 
to preserve the entire system. Somewhere 
its results maintain the evenness of the 
balance. The apparent unsettling is the 
perpetual equilibrium. 

The moral effect of this stability, uncon- 
sciously penetrating heart and brain from 



102 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

life's earliest moment, is more powerful than 
we might concede. It is a part of us. In 
spite of ourselves, we believe. Protesting 
that we have faith in nothing, we trust in 
nature. It is more to us than we can put 
into words, to feel that, when misfortunes 
come, and familiar faces no longer brighten 
our circle, and doubts throw their shadows 
across the soul, our dear old fields and 
skies and forests remain. We may feel that 
everything is going, till we set foot upon 
the earth and lift up our eyes to the stars. 
They are still there. They do not desert us. 
Whatever may fail, "the sunrise never failed 
us yet.'' Whatever may be uncertain, the 
snow-flakes will fly, and the Spring will come, 
and seed-time and harvest return. From the 
clamor of tongues, from the conflicts of creeds, 
from the tossing of doubts, one may take 
refuge in the thought that the world is 
established and her order fixed. Here is a 
foundation which none can dispute. Whoever 



DOWN TO THE LAKE. 103 

builds upon that his temple of thought and 
hope, will not build in vain. 

'* For nature ever faithful is 
To such as trust her faithfulness. 
When the forest shall mislead me, 
When the night and morning lie, 
When sea and land refuse to feed me, 

'Twill be time enough to die ; 
Then will yet my Mother yield 
A pillow in the greenest field, 
Nor the June flowers scorn to cover 
The clay of their departed lover.'' 

Down to the lake that company of early 
Christian disciples went. But there was some- 
thing more than the lake and its influence. 
There was work to do. Whatever was true 
or untrue about their fancied kingdom, the 
homely tasks of every-day life were left. 
There were their humble duties. There could 
be no mistake about these. 

Many people have censured Peter and his 
comrades for that resolution; have called 
them unspiritual, and said that they might 
better have held a day of fasting and prayer, 



104 A CHILD OF KATURE. 

or gone to searching the old records and 
prophecies for light. But, in spite of all 
censure, that was a most manly and sensible 
resolve. Their brains were too puzzled for 
study. What solution there was for the 
doubts and fears of those disciples must come 
to them along the path of duty. 

And so it transpired. After that night of 
toil, there dawned for them through the 
morning twilight, upon the Sea of Galilee, a 
vision fairer than the sun. 

For you and me also must the beatific 
vision rise upon seas of toil, in the midst of 
common duties ! 

When asked what I would say to such a 
young man as the one I have mentioned in 
an earlier portion of this essay, — the one to 
whom nothing seemed settled and all was 
despair, — I replied: "I should say to him 
honestly and fairly. My brother, I do not 
know any more about most of these questions 
than you do. There are ten thousand things 



DOWN TO THE LAKE. 105 

that we never can settle in this world. We 
know absolutely nothing about them. They 
must always remain matters of speculation. 
I have some very definite but very simple 
beliefs, and what I regard as some very strong 
reasons for them. I could tell you those, 
but you must reach your own conclusions 
at last. They must be wrought out, not 
according to what books say, but out of 
experience and life. Be in no haste to reach 
them. Opinions must form slowly. Do not 
fear that God is in a hurry to have you 
reach such and such beliefs. Do not think 
of him as forever holding before you a 
catechism, whose questions and answers you 
must master before he is pleased with you. 
Above all things, he wants perfect sincerity. 
You must begin upon very common ground 
to build your character, and through that 
your creed. Let us leave, for the moment, 
God and immortality quite out of the question. 
Perhaps they are too vague to be grasped at 



106 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

first by an inquiring mind. We know that 
there are such facts as ^ right' and ^ wrong' 
and 4ove' and ^ truth' and ^justice' and 
^duty.' They represent what, a thousand 
times, you and I have felt to be realities. 
Let us start with these. Here, at least, we 
are upon solid ground. Here the foundations 
are firm. When we get lost in the cloud- 
lands of speculation, let us come right down 
to the earth, and look for something to do: 
some humble duty it may be, but let us do 
it. I do not know what business we have 
to go soaring through the heavens when we 
are neglecting all that we ought to do upon 
the earth. We are here and now. Let us 
find our work and attend to it. If you do 
not see very far ahead of you, go just as far 
as you see and no farther; and do not fret 
about the rest of the journey until you have 
taken the step that is plain. Do the duty 
that lies nearest your hand. It may be 
writing a neglected letter; it may even be 



DOWN TO THE LAKE. 107 

wiping the pen after the letter has been 
written. If you see nothing before you but 
wiping the pen, do that, and your next duty 
will become instantly clearer. Thus are we 
brought from the infinities and eternities, 
with their fathomless mysteries, to the homely 
little duty we do understand, and by whose 
performance the great Father leads us one 
step forward in a pathway that shineth 
brighter and brighter unto the perfect day." 

After this fashion, I would speak to that 
young man, or to any one in a similar 
condition. 

It might do him no good. It might seem 
altogether contemptible, such talk as that. 
Yet I believe it is the only course to pursue 
for those who are distracted with ceaseless 
and fruitless speculation. In the classic 
fable, when Theseus entered a vast labyrinth, 
his only escape was by means of a silken 
thread, one end of which he held between 
thumb and finger in the darkness, while 



108 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

the other end was grasped by a friendly 
hand at the month of the cave. Had he lost 
that thread, his condition would have been 
hopeless. 

We have a thread whose strands are 
morality and duty. If we hold it firmly, it 
will lead us out of every cavern of darkness, 
into light. 

This is the only safe and wise way. 
Whoever is questioning whether there be a 
God may be sure that he will not find him 
by wandering away from his own work. He 
is revealed there in that very work and in 
the higher qualities of the workman. If a 
man does not find this life worth living, why 
should he be so eager for another? He who 
finds the highest and best there is in this 
life has strongest assurance that he will live 
on beyond the horizon. He who pursues 
this course is in the line of God's purpose. 
That woven cord of morality and duty takes 
high hold upon the eternal throne. God 



DOWI^ TO THE LAKE. 109 

himself is leading the man who holds by the 
other end; and slowly, but surely, that man 
is marking his way onward and upward. 

Eiding in the cars a few days ago, between 
Fort Wayne and Chicago, I fell in with a 
plain-looking man, who said, in a very honest 
way, "I do not believe much in the theology 
of the churches; but I believe in doing good 
to my neighbors and being kind to my 
family ! '' Then he added, '' Do you know, 
sir, I went away from home to be gone 
several days longer, and there is no reason 
for my returning just now; but the fact is, 
I want to see my baby boy ! He took it very 
hard when I came away, and I want to get 
back to him just as soon as I can!'^ The 
little fingers had hold of his heart-strings and 
were drawing him hundreds of miles. 

I thought of two old and familiar texts : 
^^ Every one that doeth righteousness is born 
of him,'' — that is, of God. He may not 
appreciate God clearly enough to acknowledge 



110 A CHILD OF NATURE. 

him, but the life of God is in every righteous 
man. This also: ^^He that loveth is born 
of God, and knoweth God/' — knoweth him 
in reality, though not, it may be, by name. 

I cannot doubt, however, that somewhere 
and sometime every such soul will sing: 

''I am at rest, 
Since I have understood 
God is, and he is good. 

'' No more my strength 
In idle search is spent ; 
Its secret is content. 

*"Tis mine to do 
What God reveals each day ; 
I joy as I obey. 

"I am at rest, 
Because the love divine 
Enfolds this life of mine ! " 

Wise old Simon Peter, we are much 
indebted! You cut but a sorry figure in 
that sad denial. You were over bold and 
boisterous when you affirmed your loyalty 
and promised to stand by your Master alone, 



DOWN TO THE LAKE. Ill 

if all the rest should forsake him. But we 
forgive it all, as he forgave yon then. Better 
than the agony of tears that followed swiftly 
upon the heels of your sin was your noble 
resolve upon the shores of Galilee, when you 
said, ^^ I go a fishing,'' and led your dispirited 
comrades down to the lake and the fishing- 
boats. It was wise, Peter, to go back to 
nature and to work. Noble was it for you, 
and all those other poor distracted minds, to 
leave the ruins of broken hope and faith 
for the certain and unmysterious duties of 
common life. 

May we be brave and wise ourselves ! In 
times of doubt and uncertainty may we enter 
whatever gateway is open, perform whatever 
task lies nearest our hand! And may there, 
at length, arise upon us, as upon Peter, a 
greater and brighter light, — a light that shall 
swallow up our darkness and make glad our 
weary hearts! 



James H. West, Publisher, 174 High St., Boston. 

'*AS NATURAL AS LIFE." 

Studies of the Inner Kingdom. By Charles 
G. Ames, Minister of the Church of the 
Disciples, Boston, pp. 109. 

Contents: 1. "As Natural as Life"; 2. Self -Preservation ; 
3. Heart- Aclie and Heart's -Ease ; 4. Numbering Our Days. 

Boston Ideas. — One of the most satisfying treatises we 
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Chf'istian Register. — This volume will be widely sought 
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Boston Courier. — Marked by a large outlook, a defined, 
earnest purpose, a beautiful simplicity, and a practical, 
rational religious thought. 

Miftneap oils Journal . — Mr. Ames has a delightfully pure 
style, and sets before the reader a very high standard of 
living. 

To-Day. — Religion is clarified by such a book as this, 
for " common things shine with heavenly meaning," and 
the divinest things are " as natural as life." 

San Francisco Call. — Written in a clear, simple and im- 
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Every reader of this little book will get full value from it 
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IN LOVE WITH LOVE. E=^-^ 

Four Life-Studies. By James H.West, Author 
of "The Complete Life," "Uplifts of Heart 
and Will/' etc. pp. 109. 

Contents: 1. Transfigurations; 2. Serenity; 3. True Great- 
ness ; 4. Our Other Selves. 

Christian Register. — There is something singularly fresh 
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Unitarian. — Of very rare ethical and spiritual quality. 
One will look far before he will find more earnest utter- 
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women not only * in love with love ' but in love with truth 
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catholic writer, as well as a strong one, and always helpful. 

San Francisco Call, — Scholarly contributions to practical 
knowledge and action in life. Full of thoughts of the kind 
that set the reader's mind to work. 

Rochester Herald, — Mr. West is both poet and philos- 
opher, and he appeals to the best that is in human nature 
in words that compel attention. 

Detroit Free Press, — The essays are very helpful in their 
sound, stern morality. Mr. West has a homely, practical 
way of stating truths which is very impressive. 

Boston Gazette. — Full of helpful thoughts and sugges- 
tions, and written in a style that will appeal to a large 
circle of readers. 

Toledo Sunday Journal, — Must please thousands. 

Clothe bevelled^ neatly stampedy red edgeSt SO cents. 

Special fine edition, white and gold, bevelledy elaborate stamping, 

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[Second Thousand.] 

Uplifts of Heart and Will. 

In Prose and Verse. 

By JAMES H. WEST, 

Author of "The Complete Life," "In Love with Love," etc. 

"/it takes a soul to move a body, 
* * Life develops froin within.'' 

PRESS NOTICES : 

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Sacramento Record-Union. — One of the most earnest vol- 
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it peculiarly attractive. 

Fall River Monitor.— They touch upon the many experiences 
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man's needs, and a still wider, deeper sympathy with his 
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London ChHstian Zi/e.— A book good for both old and young 
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Yale Literary Magazine. — The poems included in the book 
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Woman's Tribune.— ^ot dogmatic, deeply reverent, appeal- 
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heights of larger helpfulness and blessedness. 

Cleveland World.— K beautiful little volume, free from cant, 
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American Hebrew.- Trose and verse that will surely appeal 
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London Christian World.— YmW of very helpful and finely 
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Boston Herald.— One is very strongly impressed with the 
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The Unitarian.— The earnestness, indeed the eagerness, of 
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Cloth, bevelled, red edges, 106 pages, 50 cents. 

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IJSr LOVE WITH LOVE. Four Life-Studies. Cloth, 
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THE COMPLETE LIFE. Six Addresses. Cloth, 
112 pages, 50 cents. 

?' Words brave and true. Every word the author indites is 
golden, and should be read by young and old. Such books are 
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UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. In Prose and 

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HOLIDAY IDLES SE, and Other Poems. New Ked- 
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SONGS OF SINCEBITY. (Compilation.) Heavy 
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A collection of seventy-five pieces, progressive in idea and 
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Savage, Clough, Wasson, Matthew Arnold, Jones Very, Alice 
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Two Books of Large Value. 



Sociology. 



The Growth^ Welfare^ and Social Relations of Man. 

By Prof. John Fiske, Prof. George Gunton, Prof. 
Kufus Sheldon, Dr. Robert G. Eccles, Dr. Lewis G. 
Janes, and others. Cloth, 412 pages, $2.00. 

The Scope and Principles of the Evolution Philosophy ; The 
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Evolution of the Mechanic Arts ; Evolution of the Wages Sys- 
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*' A very brilliant book indeed. One can here get at the core 
of all the dominant isms." — 3Iinneapolis Journal. 

** A great educational work. There is a whole world of in- 
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Evolution. 

The Origin of JVorlds and the Ascent of Life. 

By Prof. E. D. Cope, Ph.D., Dr. Lewis G. Janes, 
Dr. Robert G. Eccles, John W. Chadwick, M. J. 
Savage, and others. Cloth, 408 pages, $2.00. 

Life of Herbert Spencer; Life of Darwin; How Suns and 
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Evolution of Animal Life ; The Descent of Man ; Evolution of 
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Religious Thought ; The Philosophy of Evolution ; The Effects 
of Evolution on the Coming Civilization. 

" Scholarly and instructive. We commend the book."— A^ew? 
York Sim. 

**A simple but accurate exposition of the evolutionary phi- 
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Pamphlets, 16 to 32 pages each, some of them 
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Topics of To-day. 

Essays and Lectures on Important Themes of Evolu- 
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John W. Chadwick, Dr. Lewis G. Janes, E. D. Cope, 
Ph.D., and others. 

Ten Cents Each. 

1. HERBERT SPENCER: His life and personal character- 

istics. By Daniel Greenleaf Thompson. 

2. CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN: His ancestry, life, and 

personal characteristics. By John W. Chadwick. 

3. SOLAR AND PLANETARY EVOLUTION : How suns and 

worlds come into being. By Garrett P. Serviss. 

4. EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH : The story of geology ; 

how the world grew. By Dr. Lewis G. Janes. 

5. EVOLUTION OF VEGETAL LIFE: How does life begin? 

By William Potts. 

6. EVOLUTION OF ANIMAL LIFE : The evidences. By 

Rossiter W. Raymond, Ph.D. 

7. THE DESCENT OF MAN : His ancestral line ; duration 

of human life on the planet. By E. D. Cope, Ph.D. 

8. EVOLUTION OF MIND : The mind and the nervous system ; 

the nature of mind. By Robert G. Eccles, M.D. 

9. EVOLUTION OF SOCIETY : Growth of the family, city, 

State ; domestic relations. By James A. Skilton, Esq. 

10. EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY : Origin of religious beliefs ; 

ancestor and nature worship. By Z. Sidney Sampson. 

11. EVOLUTION OF MORALS : How altruism grows out of 

egoism ; the proper balance. By Dr. Lewis G. Janes. 

12. PROOFS OF EVOLUTION: From geology, embryology, 

rudimentary organs, etc. By Nelson C. Parshall. 

13. EVOLUTION AS RELATED TO RELIGIOUS THOUGHT: 

Design ; miracle. By John W. Chadwick. 

14. THE PHILOSOPHY OF EVOLUTION : Its relation to 

prevailing systems. By Starr Hoyt Nichols. 

15. THE EFFECTS OF EVOLUTION ON THE COMING CIV- 

ILIZATION : Social schemes tested. By M. J. Savage. 

16. THE SCOPE AND PRINCIPLES OF THE EVOLUTION 

PHILOSOPHY : Human needs. By Dr. Lewis G. Janes. 

17. THE MORAL AND RELIGIOUS ASPECTS OF HERBERT 

SPENCER'S PHILOSOPHY. By Sylvan Drey. 



18. THE RELATIVITY OF KNOWLEDGE : Sense-perception; 

the Unknowable. By Robert G. Eccles, M.D. 

19. A STUDY OF MATTER AND MOTION : With quotations 

from many authorities. By Hon. A. N. Adams. 

20. PRIMITIVE MAN: Earliest races; cave-men; mound- 

builders; first tools. By Z. Sidxey Sampson. 

21. GROWTH OF THE MARRIAGE RELATION: Polygamy; 

polyandry ; monogamy ; divorce. By C. Staxiland Wake. 

22. EVOLUTION OF THE STATE: Growth of family, tribe, 

clan, city; the State's final form. By Johx A. Taylor. 

23. EVOLUTION OF LAW^ : How law begins ; statute and judge- 

made law; customs and law. By Prof. Rufus Sheldon. 

24. EVOLUTION OF MEDICAL SCIENCE : Supernatural 

ideas ; sanitary science. By Robert G. Ecoles, M.D. 

25. EVOLUTION OF ARMS AND ARMOR : Nature's methods ; 

final universal peace. By John C. Kimball. 

26. EVOLUTION OF TELE MECHANIC ARTS : Development 

of the hand ; inventions ; labor. By J. A. Skilton, Esq. 

27. EVOLUTION OF THE WAGES SYSTEM: W^ages the out- 

growth of slavery. By Prof. George Gunton. 

28. EDUCATION AS A FACTOR IN CIVILIZATION: Pagan, 

Catholic and Protestant ideas. By Caroline B. Le Row. 

29. EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL REFORM. I. The Theological 

Method. By John W. Chadw^ick. 

30. EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL REFORM. 11. The Socialistic 

Method. By William Potts. 

31. EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL REFORM. III. The Anarch- 

istic method. By Hugh O. Pentecost. 

32. EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL REFORM. IV. The Scientific 

Method. By Daniel Greenleaf Thompson. 

33. ASA GRAY : His life and work. By Mrs. Mary Treat. 

34. EDWARD LIVINGSTON l^OUMANS. The Man and his 

work. By Prof. John Fiske. 

"The mode of presentation seems to me admirably adapted 
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"One rarely finds so much of value made so interesting." 
Bujfalo Express. 

%* All hooks and pamphlets tnentioned in these pages for 
sale by booksellers, or sent, postpaid, on receipt of 2)rice by 

JAMES H. WEST, Publisher, 

174 High Street, Boston. 



Books of Interest and Value. 



Messages of Faith, Hope and Love. 

Selections for Every Day in the Year, from the 
Writings of James Freeman Clarke. Cloth, 
price $1.00. 

** It is as perfect a missal for an entire year's use as could be 
desired. Whatever inspires and strengthens one's faith, 
enkindles and sustains liope, and feeds the springs of love in 
the human breast, is to be found compressed in the teachings, 
the wisdom, the iDersuasions, and the pure messages, that are 
recorded on these pages." — Boston Cmirier. 

The Deeper Meanings. 

By Frederic A. Hi^s^ckley. Cloth, price 50 cents. 

Contents: The Cost of the Divine Spark; The Poet-Vision; 
Looking at Life through New Eyes ; Rejoice, we Conquer ! 

"A little volume of essays which, though written in prose, 
are full of the poetic spirit, and thought-inspiring to the 
better lite.''— Detroit Free Press. 

A Year of Miracle. 

Four ISTature-Studies. By William C. Gannett. 

106 pages. Cloth, limp, red edges, 50 ceifts. Fine 
edition, bevelled edges, full gilfc, heavy paper, $1.00. 
Contents: Winter, or Treasures of the Snow; Spring, or 
Resurrection ; Summer, or The Flowers ; Autumn, or The Har- 
vest Secret. " A dainty little book, full of delicate fragrance. 
Love of Nature is in it, and a longing to interpret that secret 
of Nature's power over the soul which no man has yet under- 
stood. There is devotion in it too." — The Critic, 

Freedom and Fellowship in Religion. 

Essays on Vital Topics of Ethics and Religion. By 
O. B. Frothingham, J. W. Chadwick, Col. T. W. 
HiGGiNSON, W. J. Potter, Samuel Longfellow, 
F. E. Abbot, Ph.D., and others. 424 pages, $1.00. 

Some of the Topics: Religion and Science; The Religious 
Outlook; Liberty and the Church; The Nature of Religion; 
Philanthropy; The Soul of Protestantism; The Genius of 
Christianity. 



Social Equilibrium. 

By Geokge Batcheloe. Cloth, 286 pages, $1.50. 

"The capacity for broad sight, the calmness of the judicial 
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" Bold and manly, — terse, comprehensive and logical, 

a complete review of the deeper social and moral questions of 
the present da,y."— New England News. 

Problems in American Society. 

By Joseph H. Ckookeb. Clotli, 294 pages, $1.25. 

*' Out of all the confusion of current theory, fanatical bitter- 
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considerate work, treating burning questions with catholic 
liberality, really helpful to the seeker for wisdom, and giving 
hint of the survival we shall find when all this clamor and 
fermentation is over. Such a work is ' Problems in American 
Society.' ''—Detroit Free Press, 

The New Bible and its New Uses. 

By Joseph H. Ceooker. Cloth, 286 pages, $1.00. 

"Multitudes of people to-day, both outside and inside the 
churches, are aware that the New Criticism, arisen in our age, 
has revealed a New Bible ; and what they want to know, and in 
the simplest, most straightforward way ,*^ is this : What changes 
in our attitude toward the Bible are involved ; and what new 
and wiser uses of it are made possible and necessary by these 
discoveries ? Mr. Crooker's present w^ork succintly answers 
this query." 

The New Ideal. 

A volume of original popular essays and reviews, — 
Modern Religious, Scientific, Economic, Reform- 
atory. Edited by James H. West. Cloth, 570 
pages, $1.25. 
**0f marked ability. Indispensable to those who seek to 

keep abreast of contemporary thought." — Spritigfield Times. 
"Deserving of attention from thoughtful persons."— ^os^on 

Herald. 
"Earnest and high-minded.''— Literary World, 



Proofs of Evolution. 

The evidences from Geology, Morphology, Embry- 
ology, Metamorphosis, Eudimentary Organs, Geo- 
graphical Distribution, Discovered Links, Artificial 
Breeding, Reversion, Mimicry. By Nelson C. 
Parshall. Cloth, 70 pages, 50 cents. 
The modern doctrine of Evolution has revolutionized the 
world's thought. Orderly development is now seen to be 
Nature's method in her every department. On the theory of 
Evolution is based nine-tenths of the latest and best religious 
thought. That all the sciences now find their working-basis 
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fore that so many people in their private capacity still know so 
little of the Evolution argument. This state of things is not 
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are rapidly following each other from the press. In certain 
public schools prizes are being given yearly for the best essays 
on Evolution topics. One of the most desirable small books 
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collateral reading\ As a handbook in further extended study 
of the subject it is exceedingly valuable. 

"One of the most systematic, concise and comprehensive 
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evolution. Excellent, . . . succinct, . . . interesting."— Pw6^ic 
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Character and Love. 

Compiled and arranged by Alfked W. Martin, from 
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times. Cloth, 50 cents. 

Topics: Brotherhood, True AVorship, Character, Holy Living, 
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Science and Immortality. 

A Symposium. 137 pp. Cloth, 75 cts. Paper, 50 cts. 

This book is an interesting scientific discussion by many of 
the most eminent scientific men in this country and in Eng- 
land on "What Science says about Immortality." The book 
also contains carefully written notes on the testimony, and is 
concluded with biographical notes giving a brief outline of 
the scientific career of the authors. 



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